1. Cross-Reference to Related Case
This invention is an improvement of the barbecue of my U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,867, granted 1987 Aug 4.
2) Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to barbecues, specifically to an arrangement of plates used in a barbecue for catching food drippings and generating smoke.
3) Prior Art
In gas-fired barbecues, a gas burner is mounted below a cooking grid (also known as a food-holding grill or grate) for creating a flame under and thereby cooking food on such grid.
Cooks and designers have found that the flavor of such food can be enhanced by causing smoke to envelop and thereby penetrate such food. One way to generate such smoke is to position rocks over the burner and below the cooking grid. The rocks, preferably lava rocks, are placed upon a rock grate mounted over the burner and below the grid. Drippings from food fall onto the rocks, which, being very hot, vaporize such drippings to create smoke which rises and envelops the food, causing it to have a desirable smoky flavor.
However this arrangement has a serious drawback since such drippings can fall between the rocks, or flow around such rocks, onto the burner and its flame. As a result, the drippings, which are fatty and hence combustible, can ignite and cause a flareup and possibly a dangerous fire, injuring users of the barbecue and causing property damage.
In my above patent, I introduced refractory plates that eliminate such flareups and uneven cooking. These plates were positioned between the burner and the cooking grid; they caught and thereby prevented the drippings from reaching the burner. Specifically, a pair of plates were mounted between the burner and the grill in an anticline or tentlike arrangement. The plates were mounted so that their inner, upper edges overlapped slightly and the plates sloped down and away on both sides of a high centerline crest over the burner.
In operation, drippings from food on the cooking grid fell onto the sloping plates, which were hot, and thereby created smoke which rose and enveloped the food above. Also the plates prevented the drippings from reaching the burner flame. As stated in my patent, any drippings which didn't vaporize promptly flowed down the plates to their outer edges. An outer section of each plate was bent up to catch the drippings. Since the bent-up sections were located away from the intense heat in the center part of the barbecue, the latter drippings did not flare up or catch fire.
My above patent discloses several arrangements for mounting the sloping plates over the burner of a barbecue.
In one arrangement, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 of the patent, the plates rested on bolts mounted in the ends of the barbecue housing and tabs which extended out from the sides of the housing. This mounting arrangement was undesirable since it was relatively complex and was difficult to assemble and disassemble for cleaning.
In another arrangement, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 of the patent, the plates were mounted over the rock grate by means of spacing cylinders positioned on the rock grate and between the overlapping plates. In another arrangement, not specifically shown in the patent, but in commercial use, the plates were positioned, with a slight overlap, on a support angular member which was positioned on the rock grate.
While the above two arrangements operate well, they cannot be used with many barbecues sold today since manufacturers have redesigned such barbecues so that they no longer employ any rock grate. They removed the rock grate because the rocks became contaminated and messy and were difficult to clean. Instead the barbecues employed metal devices which the manufacturers claimed generated smoke and distributed the heat more evenly. However all of these devices provided routes for the juices and fats from the food to reach the burner below and hence did not prevent flareups. My plates cannot be used in these barbecues since they do not have a surface for supporting such plates. My plates could not be mounted directly upon the burner with the aforementioned support angular member since the plates would interfere with the flames, since burners in different barbecues have different shapes and sizes, and since there would be no support for the outer, lower sides of the plates.